The York Y Rambler

By Coach Michael

3 June 2007

PRACTICE SCHEDULE ADJUSTMENTS THIS WEEK

Because of the Trident meet at Franklin & Marshall this weekend, we are adjusting our training schedule somewhat:

Thursday 7 June           NO A.M. PRACTICE FOR SENIORS

Thursday 7 June           PRACTICE FOR ALL GROUPS:  6:00 TO 7:30 PM

Friday 8 June                PRACTICE FOR ALL GROUPS:  6:00 TO 7:30 PM

Saturday 9 June            NO PRACTICE

HOW GREEN IS MY VALLEY’S POOL IN THE MORNING?

This summer we will be offering “doubles” for the Senior and Junior training groups.  Evening practices will be at the Downtown Y at the usual times.  Morning practices will be held at the Green Valley pool a few miles north of the YMCA.

Morning practices will begin next Monday 11 June.  We will have mornings at Green Valley between three and four times per week until the end of July.  Every practice runs from 7:30 am until 9:30 am.  Most practices will include some dryland, so swimmers should bring shoes, shorts, and shirt along with their swimming equipment.  Note that we do not have the same morning practice schedule each week; it varies week by week depending on our meet schedule.

The cost is $ 100 for the summer for Seniors and Juniors; checks should be made out to the York YMCA and should be given to me before a swimmer attends morning practices.  These practices are not mandatory, but swimmers in the Senior group should consider them very highly recommended; Junior training group swimmers should consider them recommended.  Consistent doubles are a wonderful way to slingshot your improvement, and that is what the summer is for (and you thought it was for laying out and getting a tan).  Very important note:  these morning practices are IN ADDITION TO evening practices; mornings DO NOT represent a substitute for evening practices.  It is not a “double” if you swim in the morning then skip evening practice.

For the first two weeks, I am opening the morning practices to the Gold training group to see how it goes.  This is an experiment and may not last; we will have to see if I can handle the range and numbers of swimmers by myself.  Morning practices for Gold will be instead of evening practice, not in addition to evenings, and will be free of charge.  Attached to this newsletter is a schedule of summer racing and training.

Summer Racing & Training Schedule

THE QUOTE BOARD

Once a week from now on, I will be distributing a page from my fairly extensive Quote Board to each family’s mailbox.  These quotations represent a compendium of attitudes that have led to success at the very highest levels of many disciplines, including athletics, arts and letters, business, statesmanship, etc.  Page one was distributed yesterday.  Tape it to the refrigerator and use these great thoughts to get motivated – swimmers must think like champions before they will swim like champions!

GET THE WORD OUT!!!

Please help distribute Summer League program flyers far and wide, around the neighborhood, around the school, at doctors and dentists offices, at soccer games – anywhere kids and their parents congregate.  We are looking for athletes:  kids who ride their bikes around the neighborhood, who play in the back yard, who are active and who could easily take that activity and transplant it to the pool.  We are trying to bring new kids into swimming, not just kids who have already been swimming competitively elsewhere.  Help them realize what a great sport swimming is!!!  Please take a handful of flyers and spread the word.  The stronger our seasonal program here at the Y, the stronger our year-round program.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

“A winner gets completely saturated with the desire to excel…. The greatest thing that makes a championship player is his desire to be one.  The greatest single quality of a championship club is a collective, dominating urge to win.”

“Wanting to do something – desire – is the greatest difference between a championship team and a team in the second division.”

Branch Rickey, baseball pioneer

Note:  Branch Rickey created winning teams.  He knew winners.  And it is interesting that, according to Rickey, the winning athlete and the winning team are not characterized by the biggest muscles, they aren’t the tallest, they don’t have the strongest arms, they don’t have the highest batting averages, and they aren’t the quickest around the bases.  Winners are not distinguished by anything physical; instead, they think differently from everyone else.  This is a very important point and should be meditated upon.  Napoleon had the same idea in mind when he stated that only one quarter of a battle’s outcome depended on the material forces of the two armies; three quarters depended on the psychology of those armies.